


The Go-Between

by Framlingem



Category: Hawkeye (Comics)
Genre: Cooking, Family, Friendship, Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 08:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1892715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Framlingem/pseuds/Framlingem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint and Kate care about each other - that's obvious to Simone. They seem to need an intermediary, though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Go-Between

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geckoholic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geckoholic/gifts).



The first time Simone meets Clint Barton, it's a Tuesday. Her eldest, Benoit, comes hundering into the kitchen with the news that "Momma, momma, someone's moving into the creepy apartment!"

 

It's not actually a creepy apartment. It's just been empty for a while, and the most recent storytime at the library was about a haunted house that nobody lived in, and so her kid has naturally decided that any place where nobody lives is creepy.

 

"Don't be nosy," she tells Benny, and then decides that it's a good time to check the mail. Purely by coincidence, they run into their new neighbour as he's coming through the door with a box. He looks tired.

 

They introduce themselves, and the boys make her proud with their best company manners (which is to say that Benny introduces himself nicely, and Gabriel doesn't immediately hide his face in her neck). Her oldest offers to help carry the box, which is when she learns that Mr. Barton has a sweet smile.

 

"Thanks, buddy!" he says. "This one's kinda heavy. If your mom says it's okay, though, I could use someone to open the door when I get it up the stairs." Of course she says yes. Her son is at the age where he likes to be helpful, and she'd like to keep it that way as long as possible.

 

On the way up, the small talk turns to jobs. She's a substitute teacher, looking for a full-time position. Mr. and Mrs. Ngo in 2A are nice enough to watch the boys during the day when she's working and they're not in daycare, in exchange for some help around their apartment with things they're getting a little too stiff to do themselves. These are things the apartment super really should take care of, but, well. The super isn’t very super.

 

Mr. Barton tells her he's in law enforcement, which is weird, because he sure as hell doesn't give off the cop vibe.

 

Just as they reach the hall outside his apartment, the tape on the bottom of the box gives way and a bunch of really ratty T-shirts falls onto the floor. "Aw, box, no," says Mr. Barton, but Benny is already picking up the clothes up and trying to fold them.

 

The next day there's some sort of altercation downtown. The Avengers are involved. She doesn't see her new neighbor again for six months, and when she does he has somehow acquired a dog (much to the delight of her kid) and her rent somehow doesn't triple after all.

 

Clint looks even more tired than he did when they met, and bruised to boot. She thinks to herself, thatman needs someone.

 

***

 

The first time she meets Kate Bishop, Kate doesn't use a last name, opting just for “Clint’s friend Kate”. Simone reads the gossip mags and the society pages in the break rooms at work, though, and she knows perfectly well who Kate Bishop is. She, and the rest of the building, are all well aware of who Clint is as well, because they're not stupid, but they let him keep his illusion of anonymity. She does wonder for a while why Kate Bishop is slumming it at a barbecue on the roof of an apartment building in Bed-Stuy, but Clint Barton is Clint Barton and Kate Bishop is known to enjoy archery, so it's not entirely unbelievable. And if she wants to slum it a little, well, the building’s residents are a good group of people for a young lady to hang out with. Especially a young lady who seems to enjoy Gil's hot dogs as much as Kate seems to be enjoying them.

 

Kate's not the only woman to visit Clint, but she's the only one who doesn't seem to be genuinely angry with him most of the time. Simone doesn't think anything's going on between them in the romantic sense, which might be why Kate isn't genuinely angry with Clint most of the time.

 

The second time Simone meets Kate, she surprises Kate by walking up behind her while Kate’s picking the lock on Clint's apartment.

"Um," says Simone.

"Gah!" says Kate.

"You're picking the lock on Clint's apartment."

"I know this looks bad, but. Well. Okay, yeah, I am picking the lock on Clint's apartment."

 

Kate adjusts her designer sunglasses so that they sit at an imperceptibly straighter angle on her head. Simone feels a strange urge to do the same, except she's not wearing any sunglasses. Instead, she hefts her napping toddler a little higher on her shoulder and asks, "Why are you breaking into Clint's apartment?"

"He's not answering the phone. I haven't seen him in three days, and he gets into funks sometimes, and I just want to make sure he's got something in his kitchen besides that crappy coffee he drinks."

 

This seems pretty much in line with what Simone knows about Clint, so she shifts her grip on Gabriel to free up a hand and digs around in her purse. After some muttering, she comes up triumphantly with her key to Clint's place, which she has so she can feed the dog when Clint's going to be out of town.

 

"Oh!" says Kate. "You thought... I do have a key. I just needed the practice."

 

Clint is an Avenger, Simone reminds herself. His friends are going to be weird.

 

Clint's fridge isn't empty, but it's down to some beer and what Simone likes to call The Lettuce of Good Intentions: the untouched, wilting piece of leafy sadness that occurs whenever someone says to themselves that they are going to Eat Right. They regard it mournfully.

 

"Your afternoon free, Ms. Bishop?"

"Ew, just call me Kate, er..."

"Simone."

"Please call me Kate. In theory I have a thing at my dad's tonight, but... ugh. No. I'm free."

"Then we're making cookies. And a lasagne he can reheat."

"Good plan."

 

Gabriel wakes up. "Cookies?" he says, hopefully, zeroing in on what's important.

"Cookies, kid," Kate confirms, and there is much glee. They pick up Benny from the Ngos on their way to the bodega, where Kate whips out a shiny-looking card and pays for all the stuff for lasagne.

 

The kids help out, taking to Kate to a degree which clearly baffles the young woman, especially when Gabe tells her "updown! Updown!"

"He wants to be dangled upsidedown by his ankles," clarifies Simone, and Kate obliges. Her dubious expression clears up when Gabe chortles and claps. Kate's good company, Simone decides, even if her cookies do turn out a little lopsided.

 

***

 

She and the boys run into Clint the next day. He thanks her for the lasagne and then scratches the back of his head, clearly wanting to say something else but not sure if he should.

"Out with it, Clint," she says, in her best Teacher Voice. From his Wikipedia article, she knows he didn't get a lot of conventional schooling, but the Voice works anyway.

"It's just... well, Kate."

"Yes?"

"She really liked you. And your kids, and, well, thanks. Her family's not really... normal, you know? You gave her some normal. So, thanks."

"She held Gabe UPSIDE-DOWN!" confides Benny.

"UPDOWN!" agrees Gabe.

Clint sticks his tongue out at them, much to their delight, and looks back up at Simone. "Just... thanks. Katie's special. People don’t really get that."

 

***

 

Kate obviously thinks Clint's special, too, despite her tendency to rant about self-destructive, maudlin, secretive idiot assholes who don't know a good thing when they have it and think with their downstairs brains a little too much. She does this over coffee, when the boys are downstairs with the Ngos, and leaves, but not before sneaking new books onto the battered bookshelf in the boys' room when she thinks Simone's not looking. One time she turns up with a bag full of food and demands Simone teach her how to make that gumbo that Simone's mother used to make. Kate's a little transparent, but it's good to taste her mother's recipe again, and it's summer, which is a hard time when you're a substitute teacher and school's out. Simone's landed a part-time job filling in for a receptionist who's just had a baby, but shrimp is still expensive and filé is hard to come by outside of specialty stores.

 

They make way too much, and deposit half of it in Clint's fridge with a note that says "Barton, if this rots in your fridge I will END you and you won't even see it coming."

 

Kate wrote it. Simone's P.S. just says "enjoy!"

 

***

 

Subject: Merry Christmas! +Clint

From: k.bishop@gmail.com

To: mommy2bandg@gmail.com

 

Hey Simone, and hi little guys!

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

 

Clint's had a bad week. I have to be at some charity thing, but can you check on him?

 

Boys, make sure you go to bed early so Santa can come!

 

\- Kate.

  


Subject: Re: Merry Christmas! +Clint

From: mommy2bandg@gmail.com

To: k.bishop@gmail.com

 

The boys say Merry Christmas back, and send you hugs and a kiss. I took them up to Clint's place to watch Christmas specials, and he fell asleep. I'll check on him tomorrow.

 

Simone

 

***

 

Kate goes to California. She takes Lucky with her. The boys ask when she’s coming back.

 

Clint's brother arrives. Simone's not sure about him, and every time she sees Clint, he looks a little more battered, until -

 

Well, until it goes to hell. She gets the boys out, puts them to bed on the couch at her friend Sarah's place three buildings down, and gets back to her building to find it crawling with even more cops than had been there when she left and Captain America himself standing by the front door.

"Where's Clint?" she demands.

"Ma'am, I don't know if I - "

"Look, Captain, he's my friend, and so's Kate, and so help me if I leave him alone she'll have my head. I know perfectly well he's Hawkeye and," she gestures at the other building residents, assembled in a worried-looking clump just past the police tape she ducked under to get to Captain America, "so do all these people, and they are his friends too, and my kids like him, and we are not going to go away until we know where he is."

 

He knuckles under, because he is the type of man who responds really well to the Firm Teacher Voice, and agrees to take her to Clint. She tells the Ngos where Benny and Gabe are, and six hours later is sitting next to a hospital bed with her landlord in it. He always looks a little rough, but with bandages wound around his head and pads over his ears that make him look like he's wearing earmuffs he looks like ten miles of bad road. She's not family, so the doctors won't tell her anything, but at least he won't be alone. She knows he has the Avengers, but they seem to be taking the name literally for once and are off chasing down men in tracksuits.

 

There's a very quiet ruckus outside the door - something about one visitor only - and Kate comes marching in, every line of her body stiff from the set of her shoulders to the squeeze of her fists. She stands there, staring at Clint, until Simone gets up and hugs her.

"The chair's comfortable for a hospital chair," says Simone, and Kate nods and sits down.

 

Simone's just leaving the room when she hears Kate's voice, quietly.

 

"Barton, you stupid, stubborn, proud, sonofabitch, _jerk_ , why didn't you call me?"

 

They both need somebody, thinks Simone.

  


**Author's Note:**

> Simone was not meant to be nearly so active in this fic- she was going to just observe! She kind of asserted herself, though. I hope that's okay and that the fic is sufficiently about Clint and Kate while not actually letting them talk very much! 
> 
> Many thanks to karanguni for the beta.


End file.
